A visit to Wing Ice Cream Parlor is not for
the unadventurous. Unusual flavors such as Roasted Garlic (made with real
garlic), Cheese Pizza (with tomato paste and mozzarella) and Guabanero Sorbet (where
guava meets habanero chili) ﬁll a chalkboard menu that is as unpredictable and
unapologetic as the ice cream maker himself, Miller Royer. A Honolulu punk rock
musician and the self-proclaimed “Willy Wonka of Chinatown,” Royer is
constantly concocting flavors that delight and sometimes disturb his
open-minded customers. And in the case of a flavor he calls Dirty Diaper (basic
vanilla packed with brownie, fudge and caramel), he manages to do both at once.

Royer gets ideas for new flavors wherever he
can find them. Fond memories of climbing a mango tree as a boy inspired his
fresh mango ice cream. A bag of turmeric root given to him by a friend led him
to create Golden Milk ice cream (filled with turmeric and black pepper). Once a
month he picks a suggestion from the whiteboard where customers jot down
requests. That’s how flavors like Cocomonkey (coconut, chocolate and banana)
and Hurricane Popcorn (kakimochi, popcorn and furikake) came about. Sometimes
an idea just gets stuck in his head and he can’t shake it until he can taste
it, which is how his Cream of Mushroom ice cream was born (with real mushrooms,
of course).

Other than acknowledging that he haunts
Chinatown’s markets and produce vendors for ingredients, Royer doesn’t like to
talk about his ice cream making process. “I don’t want to tell too much,” he
says. “It’s kind of a secret.” He does admit that not all of his crazy ideas
work out. He learned the hard way that lemon or ginger, for instance, can
curdle milk, and that just a little too much of a strong flavor like licorice
or orange blossom can ruin a whole batch. But he doesn’t dwell on the misﬁres,
focusing instead on his weirdly popular successes, such as Mayan Xacoltäl (chocolate,
cinnamon and cayenne pepper) and Maui Onion and Sour Cream (yes, like the
potato chips).

If you’re intrigued by something on Royer’s
menu, he encourages you to commit to a scoop. Just don’t ask for samples. “I
only make small batches,” he says. “If I gave out free samples, there would be
no ice cream left to sell.”